Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway eBook

LINLEY STATION.

The angler, desirous of a few hours’ amusement,
may here find good sport at the fords, where the brooks
come down and enter the river. Grayling and
trout are often caught, and chub, less in favour with
fishermen, of large size.

[Chub: 25.jpg]

If the tourist be a geologist he will find it pleasant
to follow the course of Linley Brook, on the banks
of which he may find fish of ancient date, in beds
forming a passage from the Upper Ludlow to the Old
Bed Sandstone. He will be interested, too, in
noticing the angles at which the latter dip beneath
the carboniferous strata, and these again beneath
the overlying permians.

A series of interesting dingles now occur, where the
nightingale is heard in May and June, through which
whimpering streams come down, and where Tom Moody
hunted with the famous “Willey Squire.”
Tom’s exploits have been immortalised by Dibden
in the song,—­

A plain slab in Barrow churchyard covers Tom’s
remains, and simply records the date at which he died.
At

COALPORT STATION,

Seven miles from Bridgnorth, and thirty-six from Worcester,
the Severn is crossed by a handsome iron bridge, at
the opposite extremity of which is the London and
North-Western Company’s line to the Shropshire
Union at Hadley.

The China Works are about five minutes’ walk
from the station; they are extensive, and were established
during the latter half of the last century, at which
time they were removed here from Caughley. The
productions are of a high order of merit, and combine
those distinctive characters for which Caughley and
Nantgarw were celebrated. They were successful,
some years ago, in obtaining a medal awarded by the
Society of Arts; in obtaining a First Class Exhibition
Medal in 1851, also in 1855, and again in 1862.
The works are very advantageously situated, having
the river, the canal, and two railways adjoining.

The Art-Journal, in giving the history of these
works, thus speaks of them: “The productions
of the Coalport Works at the present day, thanks to
the determination, energy, and liberality of the proprietor,
take rank with the very best in the kingdom, both
in body, in potting, in design, and in decoration;
and there can be no doubt, from what is now actively
in progress, that the stand taken by Coalport is one
of enviable eminence among the ceramic manufactories
of the world.”

Edge and Son’s chain and wire rope works are
situated not far from these; and between the two,
at the foot of the inclined plane, an ingenious device
for transferring boats from one canal to the other,
is the celebrated “Tar Tunnel,” driven
into the coal measures, from which petroleum was formerly
exported on a large scale, under the name of Betton’s
British Oil.